At the risk of repeating myself from another blog, years
ago, a co-worker commented that the day after the Minnesota State Fair
concludes (Labor Day), the temperature drops by at least 20 degrees and stays
there for, well, forever.

And sure enough folks, the day after the fair, the temperature
changed from 90 degrees and humid (very humid) to 70 degrees and not
humid. (Current temperature is 62
degrees.)

I hate this time of year.

And so, a picnic dish is in order to lift our spirits! And not just any picnic dish but a cake, and
not just any cake but a Chocolate Malted
Cake. My husband loves chocolate
malts and he spent his Labor Day truly laboring on our house and garage and so
he deserved a treat.

This sweet treat is just one part of a menu titled
"Before the Mast," indicating, of course, that we should have been
out yachting this fine Labor Day weekend.
But kids, we are all yachted out so no go on that theme. Actually, we don't even own a boat so there's
that although we probably should as Minnesota
is the Land of 10,000 lakes, don't you know.
Almost everybody we know has a cabin and/or a boat, and weekend bug-outs
to go "up north" (often west, but details, details) clog the freeways
up and down the state. The good news is
that it is always easier to get into Twin Cities' restaurants during the
summer; now that we're into "fall" though, all bets are off.

At any rate, the "Before the Mast" menu contains
an "Onion and Ricotta Pie," "Dilled Tomatoes and
Cucumbers," the featured recipe – "Chocolate Malted Cake," and
"Blush Wine" because what yacht outing would be complete without
wine?

I had several potential recipes picked out before settling
on just the cake and that worked out well.
As it is, I had to wait until the temperature cooled off because no way
was I heating an oven when it was already a blast furnace outside. That said, and here I am repeating
myself: I love summer. I don't care how hot it gets because summers
here are fleeting. Am I sometimes
uncomfortable? Sure. I don't care.
In fact, bring it on, the earlier, the better!

As to picnics, this is one of those events that we associate
with summer but that need not be the case as picnics work year-round. Shoot, I've even "picnicked" while
on cross-country ski outings but that was a long time ago when I was younger and
felt the need to go out and exercise in the winter, what?

This recipe is not very hard but the small challenge I had
came with the direction to start with a cold oven. My oven, and likely yours, has a pre-heat
setting and so once I select the temperature and press "Start," it
preheats the oven for at least 7 minutes, period. I do not get the choice to just start with a
truly cold oven. This book was written
in 1988, and maybe preheat ovens were not yet popular, but I honestly spent a
couple of minutes debating as to whether or not I should subtract the pre-heat
time from the total baking time of 45 minutes.
I decided ultimately to go for a full 45 minutes at 350 but I'm not sure
that worked. The cake was moist but seemed
just a tad overdone and I bet if I subtracted time, the cake would have been
moister. No matter though, because we
snarfed it down anyway. I mean, it's
chocolate malted cake so....

So there you have it, the fruits of my labor on Labor
Day. Enjoy!

Chocolate Malted Cake
– makes 8 servings

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tablespoons instant natural-flavored malted milk powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup buttermilk

Chocolate icing

2 ounces semisweet chocolate

2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

Ann's Note: You need
to start with a "cold" oven, i.e. do not preheat!

To make the cake:
Butter a 9-inch springform pan.
Line the bottom with a circle of wax paper and lightly butter that also.

Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until
the mixture is smooth and fluffy. Then
beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure the mixture thickens and becomes
silky before adding another egg.

Sift together or sift the flour, cocoa, malted milk, baking
soda, baking powder, and salt to mix thoroughly. Add half of this to the butter sugar mixture
and stir just enough to blend. Add all
the buttermilk and stir until smooth, then blend in the remaining dry
ingredients.

Pour this batter into the lined springform pan and set in a
cold oven. Turn to 350F and bake about
45 minutes or until the top is barely warm.
Turn the cake out onto a wire rack and remove the wax paper. Cool completely.

Ann's Note: Most
ovens have a pre-heat cycle and as mentioned above, I debated about whether or
not to subtract my oven's pre-heat time (around 7 minutes) or not. In the end, I decided "Not" but I
think that was almost too much as the cake was not as moist as I was
hoping. It's up to you, just be sure to
check your cake earlier than I did mine!

To make the icing:
Place the chocolate and cream in a small bowl over barely simmering
water. When the cream is hot enough to
melt the chocolate, stir to blend thoroughly.
Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter. Pour the icing over the cooled cake,
smoothing it over and glazing the top and sides.

Ann's Note: There was
not quite enough icing for the top and sides so I skipped the sides and
concentrated on the top.

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About Me

Welcome to Collectible Cooking! My name is Ann Verme and I’ve been interested in cooking and food my whole life.
My love of food started early: my favorite toys were my Easy Bake Oven and my Betty Crocker Junior Baking Kit.
My first “collectible” cookbook was The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (copyright 1976), given to me by my mom during college, and after that, it was all over but the crying. I make frequent “buying” trips to some of my favorite cookbook stores in New York (links are posted on the blog) and try to collect wherever I go. I also authored a family cookbook and was co-project manager of the 1999-2000 Minneapolis-St. Paul Zagat Survey.
I currently have over 1000 cookbooks in my collection and it is my goal to cook my way through them, one recipe one book at a time!